Why buy home video releases nowadays when you can just watch them via online streaming platforms?

[TechExpert2021]

In the 2000s, DVDs were all the rage to the point they replaced VHS to become the dominant home video format. You could have a ton of episodes of a series and tons of movies on discs and have entire series in box sets. Then came Blu-rays in 2006 (and then Ultra HD Blu-rays in 2016), which are of higher quality than DVDs.

However, we're in 2025. The majority of people nowadays don't buy physical media anymore and strongly prefer online streaming over physical media. Retail stores like Best Buy no longer have home video releases available to purchase. And Sony plans to discontinue the production and manufacturing of optical media, including Blu-ray discs.

Have you lost interest in purchasing physical media in favor of online streaming? And as a Dragon Ball fan, do you prefer streaming services over home video to watch your favorite Dragon Ball anime series?

[MasenkoHA]

Hulu recently took off og Dragon Ball, GT, and Super. Likely because Crunchyroll wants to keep the streaming exclusive to their site and didn't renew the license.

Thankfully I have the Blue Bricks. I don't like the fact they use the English titles and credits regardless of the language I watch them in and I don't like we're missing the second OP, NEP, and first, third, and fourth ed (although this is true for all releases of Dragon Ball in the West). But I can watch them whenever I want. I'm not beholden to sign up for another overpriced streaming service or go to a pirated site with anime porn pop ups or worry if my Internet service decided to suck that day.

That's why.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

And Sony plans to discontinue the production and manufacturing of optical media, including Blu-ray discs.

Nope, they've only discontinued BD-Rs for recording content, which is an even smaller niche than commercial release collectors, but Sony will still be making discs for whatever titles they have in the pipeline.

Have you lost interest in purchasing physical media in favor of online streaming?

Also no, I haven't lost interest in physical Dragon Ball releases. I'm happy to check Daima out on Netflix, but eventually I'll want to own it because I've bought everything else and am a completionist.

And as a Dragon Ball fan, do you prefer streaming services over home video to watch your favorite Dragon Ball anime series?

For me it's the reverse. I use streaming to try stuff out, or for content I'm not likely to rewatch. For shows I always revisit like Dragon Ball physical media is the way to go.

As MasenkoHA said you can't depend on streaming services to always have that show or movie you love, or have certainty your Internet won't go down. We've also seen that even original content isn't safe, which means if TOEI had their own streaming platform there's no guarantee you'd always be able to watch Dragon Ball on it, just as Crunchyroll can't promise you that despite owning the license.

[AliTheZombie13]

Online is certainly more convenient, everybody has Internet these days.
And I think companies are catching up to that, because I have seen news of big names declaring they'll cease the production of home video releases.

Then again, I saw games people already purchased being taken offline and being lost forever, media from the past never resurfacing again, and attempts to preserve that media outright being threatened. I have seen creators of American cartoons that were cancelled because of tax reasons be so pissed off they urged their fans to resort to "other means" to watch their shows, since there was no other option.

Online is easier, but home video means no one can easily take it away from you.

[Majin Buu]

Because there's no guarantee that those shows will remain on those streaming platforms.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Another thing to keep in mind is this. As great and convenient as streaming is you will always be at the mercy of the powers that be who dictate what form that content is presented in.

For example Kai on streaming platforms will have the Kikuchi score because they're not allowed to use any other version. Conversely there are still Blu-Rays out there with the Yamamoto score, so if you want to own a copy and watch with the original score the physical releases have you covered. The Manga UK Blu-Rays are still in-print and were likely never reauthored with the Kikuchi score.

Crunchyroll will also never offer you rarities like the Pioneer dubs of Dragon Ball Z movies 1-3 or the Saban dub but the DVDs will always exist.

[Ajay]

Streaming compression is almost unanimously terrible. 20Mbps streams are nothing compared to the often 80Mbps of 4K Blu-rays. That difference tends to be even greater when you start going lower down the resolution range. The Dragon Box footage on Crunchyroll and Netflix looks abysmal compared to the discs, for example. That's not even mentioning the audio aspect - streaming audio formats suck.

I will never abandon physical media until streaming offers comparable quality. But it won't - at least not for decades - server bandwidth is limited and people's connections on average aren't good enough. And well, most people don't give a shit so there's no incentive for services to bother improving that aspect. It's just "good enough" (it's not).

[Koitsukai]

I'll use my own experience to answer: I tried to watch a certain episode of DBS, the other day, on a site that has every episode of the franchise, and it had been removed, most of the other episodes are still there, but a few sometimes aren't. That kills the experience of binge-watching it.

That will never happen with the copies I have at home. It's easier to just go to a website instead of getting up, grabbing the boxes and inserting the DVD, sure, but nothing beats having the physical copies at my disposal. And also, the quality.

[VegettoEX]

I'll use my own experience to answer: I tried to watch a certain episode of DBS, the other day, on a site that has every episode of the franchise, and it had been removed, most of the other episodes are still there, but a few sometimes aren't. That kills the experience of binge-watching it.

This makes it sound like you're watching on a piracy website, though. That's... not really relevant to the discussion here. That's not really "streaming". It's not like Crunchyroll is ad hoc removing random episodes of Dragon Ball Super at any given time.

[MasenkoHA]

Because there's no guarantee that those shows will remain on those streaming platforms.

That and the oversaturation of streaming services and constant price gouging and doubling down on limiting sharing subscriptions has gotten tiresome.

I currently have Hulu because of a 99 cent a month for a year deal but other than that I pretty much stick to free streaming services and physical media.

I'm not about to get MGM+ just to watch Challengers.

[Vegard Aune]

This makes it sound like you're watching on a piracy website, though. That's... not really relevant to the discussion here. That's not really "streaming". It's not like Crunchyroll is ad hoc removing random episodes of Dragon Ball Super at any given time.

In this specific case, that's true, and yeah, what Koitsukai was saying very much sounds like they were watching via illegal means, but the issue of media being taken down in general does still hold true for streaming in general. As was mentioned before here, Hulu apparently removed all their Dragon Ball content fairly recently, and sure, other streaming sites still have it... But if someone was watching specifically on Hulu and didn't have a subscription to CR, they now need to subscribe to a new service. I also remember once as an example watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Netflix, falling off of it for a while since I was mainly watching it with friends... Then checking in again later, it was no longer there. Surely it was on some other service probably (This was long before Disney + which I can only assume has the whole thing now) but the place I had been using to watch it? I could no longer see it there.

Generally I guess this is more a problem for less popular shows though. I very much doubt there isn't going to be some legal option to watch Dragon Ball for as long as streaming remains king... Though it does beg the question of whether those options will be any good or not, considering how I feel like the only English home video release for Dragon Ball Z that isn't actively butchered in some way is the Dragon Box. I see Ajay did allude to Netflix and CR using that footage but... honestly that is in and of itself kinda surprising. I would have expected them to just use FUNi's overfiltered and cropped remasters... Well, Dragon Box even with massive amounts of compression artifacts is still probably preferrable even to a high bitrate upload of the Season BDs....

But ultimately... Yeah I still prefer owning stuff, both for better quality and for the fact that nobody can take it away from me. As long as nothing physically happens to my Dragon Boxes, I will always have some way to watch Dragon Ball... even if admittedly I have not watched any of the old series since 2014.

[Zephyr]

Things don't stay up on those services forever. You never know when something you were planning to eventually give a watch/re-watch gets taken down. You never know when something you are in the middle of watching will get taken down. It gives every remotely appealing item on the service a healthy dash of "FOMO", which turns watching those things into an obligation and a chore.

There's also the internet connection requirement. Sometimes the internet goes out, and that sucks. It's nice to have the cognitive assurance that even if the internet goes out, you'll at least be able to pop a disc in and watch the thing. Electricity can also go out and then you can't do either, but there are plenty of times where the internet craps out but the electricity doesn't.

[VegettoEX]

In this specific case, that's true, and yeah, what Koitsukai was saying very much sounds like they were watching via illegal means, but the issue of media being taken down in general does still hold true for streaming in general.

Right, but that's not what I'm talking about, not what I said, and has already been covered by other posts. I didn't really need any clarity added there.

Only other tidbit I'll add is during the PSN outage the other day, apps could still connect... but I'd keep getting the "hey PSN is down" pop-up over and over and over, and dismissing it would just send it into an endless loop. Frustrating when there's no native Crunchyroll app on my TV. Ended up casting it from my phone to the TV instead.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, I prefer physical media not just because I own it and watch it whenever—but because I can sell it for some cash back if necessary.

Because there's no guarantee that those shows will remain on those streaming platforms.

That and the oversaturation of streaming services and constant price gouging and doubling down on limiting sharing subscriptions has gotten tiresome.

I currently have Hulu because of a 99 cent a month for a year deal but other than that I pretty much stick to free streaming services and physical media.

I'm not about to get MGM+ just to watch Challengers.

...I'm not suggesting that you get MGM+ to watch Challengers, but you do need to watch Challengers.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Electricity can also go out and then you can't do either

Unless you have a fully charged laptop and a disc drive (either built-in or an external via USB ports) then you can still pop in a disc and enjoy watching Dragon Ball. Sure the battery will go down after some time, but the option is there. It might even suffice until your electricity is restored.

There are so many situations when physical media is good to have as a back-up whereas with streaming services there is little to no chance of them serving as a fall back.

[Zephyr]

Unless you have a fully charged laptop and a disc drive (either built-in or an external via USB ports) then you can still pop in a disc and enjoy watching Dragon Ball. Sure the battery will go down after some time, but the option is there. It might even suffice until your electricity is restored.

This is true! And I do happen to have that as an option. There was a time where I did watch some of my Dragon Box DVDs on my laptop during a long roadtrip.

[Vegard Aune]

I definitely lose access to the internet a lot more often than I lose power. The former seems to happen fairly regularly, it's especially happened multiple times in the last week or two...

The latter? I think it's happened twice in the past five years. So yeah, having a thing physically (or a digital download but to be honest there's also something just inherently pleasing about having a tangible item) means I'm much more likely to have it for when I want to watch it than having a subscription to a streaming service it's on.

[MasenkoHA]

Yeah, I prefer physical media not just because I own it and watch it whenever—but because I can sell it for some cash back if necessary.

Because there's no guarantee that those shows will remain on those streaming platforms.

That and the oversaturation of streaming services and constant price gouging and doubling down on limiting sharing subscriptions has gotten tiresome.

I currently have Hulu because of a 99 cent a month for a year deal but other than that I pretty much stick to free streaming services and physical media.

I'm not about to get MGM+ just to watch Challengers.

...I'm not suggesting that you get MGM+ to watch Challengers, but you do need to watch Challengers.

It's been on my too watch list for a long time. I'm hoping at least one of my local libraries has it.

For example Kai on streaming platforms will have the Kikuchi score because they're not allowed to use any other version. Conversely there are still Blu-Rays out there with the Yamamoto score, so if you want to own a copy and watch with the original score the physical releases have you covered. The Manga UK Blu-Rays are still in-print and were likely never reauthored with the Kikuchi score.

With how incompetently Kai on Hulu was handled by Crunchymation it's sad they didn't "accidentally" give Hulu the Yamamoto version but I supposed Toei would have taken notice of that and made a stink compared to Hulu ust getting a mix of Home Video and Nicktoons broadcast masters with Kikuchi.

[ABED]

These past few years have reafirmed my preference for physical media. While streaming is still better than cable, not having to deal with the crappy terms of streamers and their ability to change things and get rid of episodes is a much better deal. I also like actually owning something.

[90sDBZ]

I'll echo the same thing that everyone else said. I don't have to worry about it being taken away, and it's just fun to collect it.

Also I'm a fan of the Faulconer score for Z, which isn't an option on any streaming service.